If cleaning the under-sink cabinet was seriously gross, the medicine cabinets, in comparison, were Not That Bad, especially considering that the last time I cleaned them was . . . . let's see . . . sometime after 2000 but before 2004. . . let's move on.
It took an hour and forty minutes to clear them out, remove and wash all the shelves, make agonizing decisions on what to toss, and then wipe down and organize everything going back.
The part I like best about any project is "styling" the newly cleaned space: arranging things so they are visually attractive as well as easy to reach and use.
On my "raid the stash" spree the weekend before last, I enoyed the last light from the wood-wick candle my boss had given me a couple years ago; the tall glass container has a lovely shape and was too pretty to throw away. Cleaned up, it's perfect for storing cotton balls (see above, right). A Turkish tea glass holds cotton swabs while sample-size skin treatments find a tidy home in an antique, cut-glass powder holder. An antique pig (above, left) is a convenient place to stash ponytail holders.
One of my most vexing organizational challenges was figuring out how to attractively stash what my 7th grade gym teacher used to call feminine protection. After scoping out possible storage solutions, I realized that a freebie cosmetics bag (above, left) I had on hand is actually the perfect size for liners, while a decorative Kleenex box is exactly the right size and shape for other such supplies. This just goes to show that sometimes the best storage solutions are the ones you already own.
Cleaning and Organizing the Master Bath Medicine Cabinets